Chapter 10:
Organizational
Attitudes and
Behavior
History of Job Attitudes
• Based in history of Job Satisfaction
• Formal research began in mid-1930’s
– 1932 I/O textbooks had no mention of job
satisfaction or organizational commitment
– By 1972 over 3000 articles published
specifically exploring worker attitudes
• Why interest developed
– Methodological breakthroughs
• Survey methods
– Statistical techniques
Attitudes Defined
• Briefly defined, an “attitude” represents a
predisposition to respond in a favorable
or unfavorable way to persons or objects
in one’s environment.
• For instance, when we say we “like”
something or “dislike” something, we are
in effect expressing an attitude toward
the person or object.
Attitudes: Three Important
Assumptions
• Three important assumptions underlie the
concept of attitudes:
1) An attitude is a hypothetical construct
2) An attitude is a unidimensional construct
3) Attitudes are believed to be somewhat
related to subsequent behavior, although as
we’ll see, this relationship can be unclear
Job Attitudes: Three Related
Components
• The job attitude is the middle component in a
belief-evaluation-behavior chain:
1) Beliefs about aspects of the job.
“My work has long stretches with nothing to do.”
2) The evaluative component, i.e., the attitude itself.
“I am dissatisfied with my job.”
3) Work-related behavioral intentions that follow
from the attitude.
“I’m intending to quit my job.”
Job Attitudes and Actual
Behavior
• The belief, attitude, intention sequence is
presumably followed by actual behavior.
• This traditional model suggests that
behaviors (including job performance) are
largely influenced by job attitudes.
• Recently, this traditional model has been
questioned as being too simple and some
more comprehensive alternatives have been
developed.
Job Attitudes and Behavior
Overview
•
•
•
•
•
•
Job Satisfaction
Job Involvement
Organizational Commitment
Organizational Justice
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
Antisocial Behavior
What is Job Satisfaction?
Job Satisfaction: The degree of pleasure an
employee derives from his or her job.
• 2 levels of Job Satisfaction:
– Global Job Satisfaction - Overall Good
Feelings
– Job Facet Satisfaction - Selected
Dimensions
•
•
•
•
•
pay
promotions
work tasks
coworkers
supervisors
Antecedents to Job Satisfaction
• What causes satisfaction
– Environment/Job Features
• Skill variety
• Task significance
• Feedback
Task identity
Autonomy
– Role Variables
• Ambiguity
• Work-family conflict
Conflict
– Person variables
•
•
•
•
Negative affectivity
Gender
Culture
Life satisfaction
Locus of Control
Age
Genetics
How do Americans feel
about going to work?
• Most Americans like their jobs overall
• People are relatively satisfied with the nature
of the work itself:
– How interesting it is
– Having lots of contact with people
• People less happy with rewards
– Pay
– Benefits
– Chances for promotion
Why all the fuss?
• Cultural interest
– Something most of us believe we are entitled
to or at least desire from our work
• Functional (practical) reasons
– Link to important organizational outcomes
•
•
•
•
Performance
Turnover
Absenteeism
Counterproductive behaviors
Job Satisfaction and
Performance
• Is a happy worker a productive
worker?
• Correlations positive and low to
moderate
– .16 with overall satisfaction in individual
studies
– .30 with overall satisfaction in metaanalytic studies
– .10 with specific facets
• Why is the association not larger?
Some Possible Explanations:
1) Research and Measurement Issues:
– Is “job performance” defined correctly?
– Can you predict specific behaviors
from a general attitude toward the job.
Some Possible Explanations:
2) “Moderator” Effects:
– Sat-performance relationship is highly
complex (Katzell, Thompson & Guzzo, 1992)
– For example, the relationship may be limited
by constraints on performance (e.g., group
norms for performance, environmental
variables such as the speed of an assembly
line)
3) Dispositional Effects:
– Some research has found a substantial
amount of the variability in job satisfaction
may relate to “trait affect”
Job Satisfaction and
Turnover
• Negative relationship
• Moderate level
= -.40
• Unlike satisfaction, turnover is well thought
out
• Why not higher
– People leave jobs for lots of reasons
• Better opportunities
• Health reasons
• More interesting work
Job Satisfaction and
Absenteeism
• Absenteeism costs organizations in lost time and
productivity
• General satisfaction with absenteeism
– Low negative correlation
• r = -.25
• Facets of job satisfaction (e.g., Career future,
Supervision, Financial rewards) with absenteeism
– Correlate better (moderate to high)
• range - .46 to -.60
• Why so low?
– Not all absenteeism due to satisfaction
• Company policies, Personal work habits, Ability to
attend (illness, transportation, etc)
Job Satisfaction
Positive
Affectivity
Interpretation of
job circumstances
Job
Satisfaction
Objective job
circumstance
Brief (1998)
Job Satisfaction: Is It Genetic?
• People have stable traits that
predispose them to be satisfied or
dissatisfied (positive vs negative
affectivity)
– Happy people are happy workers
• Emotions
• There is evidence that as much as 30%
of the variability in job satisfaction is due
to genetics
Specific Tools to Assess
Satisfaction
• Job Descriptive Index (JDI)
• Measure of 5 facets of job satisfaction
– Pay, promotions, coworkers, supervisors, work itself
– 9 to 18 items on each facet
• Pros
– Extremely easy to use with all types of respondents
– Most commonly used measure of job satisfaction
• Normative data available from hundreds/thousands
of studies
– No racial differences in assessment
• Cons
– Shouldn’t sum across facets
– Is there more to job satisfaction than just the 5 facets?
YOUR PAY AND PROMOTIONS
What are YOUR PAY AND PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES like? Circle
YES if the item describes your PAY AND PROMOTIONS, NO if the item
does not describe your PAY AND PROMOTIONS, and ? if you cannot
decide. Choose a response for each item.
Pay
UNDERPAID.........................................................
INCOME ADEQUATE FOR NORMAL EXPENSES........
BARELY LIVE ON INCOME....................................
INCOME PROVIDES LUXURIES..............................
BAD....................................................................
HIGHLY PAID.......................................................
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
?
?
?
?
?
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
Promotions
GOOD OPPORTUNITY FOR ADVANCEMENT.............. Yes
PROMOTION ON ABILITY........................................ Yes
DEAD-END JOB........................................................Yes
GOOD CHANCE FOR PROMOTION............................ Yes
UNFAIR PROMOTION POLICY................................... Yes
INFREQUENT PROMOTIONS......................................Yes
?
?
?
?
?
?
No
No
No
No
No
No
Specific Tools to Assess
Satisfaction
• Minnesota Satisfaction Survey
– 2 forms (Long form (100 items) & Short form (20
items)
– Assesses 20 facets
– Uses a 5-point scale
– Good measure of General satisfaction and
Intrinsic vs. extrinsic satisfaction
• Pros
– Reliable, valid measure of job satisfaction
• Cons
– Very long
– Are there really 20 different facets and/or is it
meaningful to have info on each of them
Specific Tools to Assess
Satisfaction
• Job In General Scale (JIG)
• Developed as a global measure of job
satisfaction
• Similar to JDI
• Pros
– Quick and easy to use
• Cons
– Doesn’t give information regarding
specific factors
YOUR JOB IN GENERAL
What is your JOB like MOST OF THE TIME? Choose YES if the item
describes your JOB, NO if it does not describe your JOB, and ? if you
cannot decide.
PLEASANT..............................…………
Yes
?
No
BAD…....................................…………..
Yes
?
No
IDEAL…..............................................…
Yes
?
No
WASTE OF TIME..................................
Yes
?
No
GOOD...........................................……..
Yes
?
No
UNDESIRABLE......................................
Yes
?
No
WORTHWHILE………………...............
Yes
?
No
WORSE THAN MOST...............……….
Yes
?
No
ACCEPTABLE………………………....
Yes
?
No
MAKES ME CONTENT……........…….
Yes
?
No
INADEQUATE………...........................
Yes
?
No
ROTTEN……..………………………....
Yes
?
No
There’s More to it than just
General Job Satisfaction
Other commonly measured job attitudes
include:
• Attitudes toward specific job features
• Job Involvement
• Organizational Commitment
• Organizational Justice
• Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
Job Involvement
Job Involvement: The degree to which a
person identifies psychologically with his or
her work and the importance of work to
one’s self-image
Job Involvement
Job satisfaction
.45
Performance
.09
Turnover
-.13
Conscientiousness
.53
Organizational Commitment
Organizational Commitment: The degree to
which an employee feels a sense of allegiance
to his or her employee
3 components (Allen and Meyer, 1990):
• Affective
• Continuance
• Normative
Commitment can be to different focal points
(e.g., job, organization, occupation).
Organizational Commitment
Organizational Commitment has been
related to many different job outcomes
Organizational
Commitment
Overall job
satisfaction
Performance
.53
Turnover
-.28
Conscientiousness
.67
Job involvement
.50
.11
Think of a time you’ve been
unfairly treated at work
• Were you ever treated rudely or
disrespectfully?
• Were you up for a promotion / raise /
job, and didn’t get it when you thought
you should have?
• Why was it unfair? How did you know?
• How did you react? Did you take
action? Why or why not?
Organizational Justice
Organizational Justice: The overarching
theoretical concept pertaining to the fair
treatment of people in organizations.
Three types:
• Distributive (equity, equality, need)
• Procedural
• Interactional (interpersonal, informational)
Organizational Justice:
Distributive Justice
Distributive Justice: The fairness with which
the outcomes or results are distributed among
members of an organization.
• Rules for allocating resources
– Equity – resources are distributed to employees
with respect to their abilities or contributions
– Equality – resources are distributed so each
person gets the same outcome, regardless of
their contributions
– Need – resources are distributed to the person
who needs them more
Organizational Justice:
Procedural Justice
Procedural Justice: The fairness by which
means are used to achieve results in an
organization.
• What are some things that lead to a procedure
being seen as fair?
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
‘Voice’ – getting a say in things
Consistency
Bias Suppression
Accuracy
Correctability
Representativeness
Ethicality
Organizational Justice:
Interactional Justice
Interactional Justice: The fairness with which
people are treated within an organization and the
timeliness, completeness, and accuracy of the
information received in an organization.
• Interpersonal component – treating people
with dignity and respect; refraining from
improper remarks or comments
• Informational component – providing
adequate explanations for decisions
Organizational Justice:
Relationships
Justice Perceptions in organizations have
been found to be related to:
• Job Satisfaction
• Organizational Commitment
• Job Performance
• Withdrawal Behaviors
• Counterproductive behaviors
• Self-perceptions
Organizational Citizenship
Behaviors
Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The
contributions that employees make to overall
welfare of the organization that go beyond required
duties of their job.
Also referred to as “extra-role behavior,” “prosocial behavior,” and “contextual performance.”
5 Dimensions of Citizenship Behaviors:
1. Altruism
2. Conscientiousness
3. Courtesy
4. Sportsmanship
5. Civic virtue
Organizational Citizenship
Behaviors
Why do people perform citizenship
behaviors?
Disposition:
Agreeableness
Conscientiousness
Situations:
Fairness
Research (Lam, Hui & Law, 1999) found that more
employees in Hong Kong and Japan regarded some
facets of OCBs as part of their job than employees
from USA and Austria
Psychological Contract
Psychological Contract: The implied exchange
relationship that exists between an employee and
the organization.
Transactional
Antisocial behaviors
Violence
Threats
Negligence
Negativism
Alienation
Relational
Indifferent social
behaviors
Compliance
Prosocial Behaviors
Conscientiousness
Sportsmanship
Courtesy
Civic virtue
Altruism
Commitment
Psychological Contract:
Violations of the Psychological
Contract
The psychological contract is violated when
one party in a relationship perceives another
as failing to fulfill promised obligations.
Pattern of responses to
psychological contract:
Voice
Silence
Retreat
Destruction
Exit
Downsizing
•Downsizing is a deliberate organizational
decision to reduce the workforce that is
intended to improve organizational
performance.
• The individuals most affected by downsizing
are those who lose their jobs.
• The “surviving” employees are also affected
by downsizing.
• Teams and groups are impacted by
downsizing.
Downsizing: Contingent workers
Many organizations are using temporary
or contingent workers.
• Contingent workers perform tasks for a specific
time period.
• Contingent workers usually are:
- staffed through an agency
- paid less
- receive few benefits
- younger, female and minorities
Mergers and Acquisitions
Merger: The joining or combining of two
organizations of approximately equal status and
power.
Acquisition: The process by which one
organization acquires or subsumes the resources
of a second organization.
•Usually organizations are more concerned
about strategic fit (shared business strategies,
financial goals) than organizational fit (culture
and match between workforce).
Antisocial Behavior at Work
Antisocial Behavior: Any behavior that brings
harm or is intended to bring harm to an
organization or its members.
Examples: insults, threats, lying, theft, sabotage,
physical violence, workplace homicide.
Antisocial Behavior at Work:
Violence in the Workplace
Perceived
Injustice
Physical
Violence
• Perpetrators often see them selves as the
victims of workplace injustice.
• Perpetrators usually want more from the
organization in terms of personal identity and
purpose than the organization can provide.